....little notes and commentaries from a pink house on the top of a tanzanian hill....

Saturday, May 29, 2010

ngorobob waffle.

lately i have succumbed to a dizzy feeling of gratitude.

maybe its the time of year or something.

or the moon.

but really, everything is very, very shiny.

it's the yellow-flowers-in-the-green time of year.

cusp of the season.

everything seems very, very beautiful.

and clear cut.

wild flowers and butterflies and moons and turquoise twilights laced with winter crispness.

with all of africa gleaming every which way.

kilimanjaro looms large and benign, as though it's just across the valley. totally sparkling out mt. meru. typical. such a twinklin' tart.

actually it's torrid. don't be fooled. don't climb it.

i like looking at mountains from the bottom or from afar. i possess no catholic desire to get to The Top. safari c climbed it last year; via The Western Breach, people. (the hard way, in case you're wondering, as opposed to the Coca Cola Easy Peasy Route). mind you, he was just doing his job. guiding some wageni, some unsuspecting texans.

i was lying on the beach in pangani as he was about to summit, looking like The Michelin Man.

i realized i was the winner in this case. yes. biscuits all round and very large noddy badges pinned onto my winner pin striped blazer. (also noted to self in proverbial black book.) i won. i felt extremely smug by being at sea level and not in some puny, pathetic little tent, buffeted by furious mountain winds and freezing my tits off.

not much to report from this lofty abode perched on the ngorobob hill. apart from seasons shifting along with colours. mrs popadopalis's flower farm is ablaze. and she emailed me to say i was no longer allowed to ride on the farm. because, as i have recently discovered, carlos, my dear spanish vaquero friend from west kilimanjaro, saw nina recently and said oh! how stupendously marvelous it was to ride ACROSS the flower fields. or maybe he actually said THROUGH the flower fields. in his spanenglish. she blanched. between her greek english and his span-oh-don't-worry-about-him-he's-from-barcelona-english, there was a bad error in communication. i always stick to the tracks. godsakes. i am a farmer's daughter. i have since being doing some serious arse licking to no avail. i shall nevertheless persist. and carlos said he would try to correct the situation. quickly, i hope, before the flowers fade and wilt.

oh wait. news hot off the press (well. at least a week old or so): we found fresh elephant droppings in a valley not far from here. really. just outside kisongo. this is remarkable. what on earth was an elephant doing there? wandering from tarangire to visit monduli mountain, perhaps? or maybe fulfilling a deep seated need for a new view? who knows. but there the poo was. undeniably leviathan.

and people, i am on Half Term. a blissful situation. and counting the weeks until the two month long "summer" hols. (it's really winter this side of the globe).

A friend of ours has talked about climing the Kilimandjaro for years. I always thought she was crazy. We live nine metres above sea level, that is high enough for me. Here you can pull plastic bags from public containers to deposit your dog`s poo. I wonder what size containers you need for ellies` poo?

amanda, thanks for the advice! will DEF give it a twirl...in fact only this morning snuck past the pink flowers...at a trot and canter. HAH. oh and thanks for correct spelling too, of Popadopoulos! xxx j

thank you Call Me Any Name..shall swing by you to read now. love xxx j

too right geli! kili is very pretty from far away...all white and shiny. sparkles in the sun. xxx j

i KNOW pamu! trotted and cantered past there this morning...the side field this side of the farm...so beautiful...all pinks, and oranges and firey reds with kili standing tall above it all. wowee kinda stuff...and wasn't caught. anyway. it's a boundary road...lots love xxx j